THE  HERRIN 


Californa 

egional 

acility  ** 


096 

errin's  heinous  crime  is  a 
Jenge  to  America,  the  Mother 
of  us  all  —  of  the  newcomer  to  her 
household  no  less  than  of  the 
native  born.  It  is  a  challenge 
that  must  be  met  now.  It  is  a 
challenge  that  must  be  met  stand- 
ing. —  Boston  (Mass.)  Transcript, 
June  28,  1922. 

An  even  more  vital  reason  for 
prompt  action  is  seen  in  the  tem- 
per of  the  men,  which  carries 
with  it  a  threat  that  the  atroci- 
ties committed  in  Illinois  this 
week  will  be  repeated  in  other 
mining  fields.  —  St.  Joseph  (Mo.) 
Press,  June  24,  1922. 

Until  this  coal  mine  butchery  is 
legally  avenged  Americans  can  no 
longer  boast  that  in  the  United 
States  the  Constitution  is  su- 
preme. —  The  Sun,  New  York, 
July  6,  1922. 


Issued  by 

The  National  Coal  Association 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


THE  HERRIN  CONSPIRACY 

A  comprehensive  story  of  the  slaughter 

as  presented  by  investigators 

and  eye-witnesses 


IN  a  wooded  grove  midway  between  the 
mining  towns  of  Herrin  and  Marion 
in  Williamson  County,  111.,  a  crime  was 
committed  on  the  morning  of  Thursday, 
June  22,  that  stirred  the  indignation 
and  aroused  the  horror  of  America  as 
had  not  been  done  since  the  stories  of 
war  atrocities  committed  by  the  Huns 
ceased  coming  across  the  ocean. 

Nearly  fifty  men — the  exact  number  is 
uncertain — who  shortly  before  had  been 
taken  out  under  a  flag  of  truce  from  the 
strip  mine  of  the  Southern  Illinois  Coal 
Company  a  few  miles  away  and  who  had 
been  promised  that  they  would  be  fur- 
nished safe  escort  to  the  railroad  station 
whence  they  could  entrain  for  their  homes, 
were  lined  up  in  front  of  a  barbed  wire 
fence,  and  hemmed  in  by  union  miners  in 
military  formation. 

Scarcely  before  a  plea  of  mercy  could 
be  made,  shotguns,  rifles  and  revolvers 
in  the  hands  of  500  men  arrayed  in  a 
semi-circle  about  the  miserable  group, 
poured  a  storm  of  lead  into  the  bodies 
of  the  captives.  Many  fell  at  the  first 
volley.  Some  got  through  the  fence  only 
to  be  shot  down  in  flight.  Others  es- 
caped the  fusillade  to  fall  victims  later  to 
a  savage  man  hunt  that  harried  the  fugi- 
tives for  hours  through  the  surrounding 
countryside.  Some  of  the  dead  were 
mutilated,  the  dying  were  kicked  and 
beaten,  the  captured  were  tortured  and 
then  slain. 

When  the  ghastly  work  was  over,  nine- 
teen of  those  who  were  working  in  the 
mine  were  dead,  several  died  later  of  the 


2216903 


34  who  were  wounded  and  a  number  are 
still  unaccounted  for.  Such  was  the  out- 
rage committed  in  a  union  district  upon 
men  who  were  merely  exercising  the  uni- 
versal law  of  the  right  to  labor  and  who 
had  been  employed  by  William  J.  Lester, 
president  of  the  coal  company,  to  operate 
the  strip  mine  from  which  the  members  of 
the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  had 
walked  out. 

An  Attack  on  Government 

This  organized  murder  of  American 
citizens  was  the  result  of  the  determina- 
tion of  a  branch  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America  to  maintain  as  an 
absolute  stronghold  the  supremacy  of  the 
Miners'  Union  in  Williamson  County  over 
and  above  the  law  of  the  State  and  the 
law  of  the  Nation. 

It  was  anarchy;  it  was  the  placing  of 
the  aim  of  the  union  as  the  supreme  law 
of  Williamson  County.  It  was  a  vicious 
attack  upon  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  our  Government  was  founded. 
The  right  of  any  American  to  do  his  work, 
a  basic  principle  of  our  Constitution  which 
guarantees  liberty  and  protection,  is 
an  issue  far  above  any  question  between 
the  United  Mine  Workers  and  opera- 
tors, and  it  concerns  not  only  the  coal 
miners  and  coal  operators,  but  every  man 
and  woman  in  this  country.  It  concerns 
every  industry,  every  home. 

What  does  this  uprising  mean?  It  is 
the  concern  of  every  citizen  of  the  land. 
Every  American  must  view  this  crime 
with  the  utmost  concern,  for  the  issue 
involves  the  very  foundations  of  our  Gov- 
ernment. What  happened  in  William- 
son County  may  happen  in  almost 
any  community  in  the  country,  if  every 
effort  is  not  put  forth  to  bring  the  assas- 
sins to  justice.  Indeed,  it  was  the  boast 


of  the  organized  band  who  committed  this 
murder  that  in  Williamson  County,  at 
least,  America  would  be  shown  that  the 
law  of  the  union  reigned  supreme. 

These  murders  grew  out  of  what  has 
every  appearance — from  the  bare  facts 
collected — of  a  well-organized  conspiracy 
to  stop  the  operation  of  the  strip  mine. 
The  investigation  indicates  that  the  con- 
spiracy was  developed  over  a  period  of 
four  or  five  days  during  which  the  senti- 
ment of  the  members  of  the  mine  workers' 
union  in  Williamson  County  was  intensive- 
ly developed  against  the  strip  mine  workers . 
Plans  for  the  attack  were  carefully  laid. 
Then  the  assault  began.  This  assault  was 
interrupted  by  a  truce  arranged  in  accord- 
ance with  the  wishes  of  the  officials  of 
the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  and 
the  County  officials  acquiesced,  as  did  the 
owner  of  the  mine  who  agreed  that  no  at- 
tempt would  be  made  to  reopen  the  mine 
during  the  strike. 

The  facts  relating  to  the  whole  affair 
have  been  assembled  here  in  order  to  give 
a  picture  of  the  situation  in  Williamson 
County  and  a  comprehensive  story  of 
what  happened. 

A  Union  Stronghold 

Williamson  County,  Illinois,  which  has 
a  population  of  61,038,  is  in  one  of  the 
most  strongly  unionized  centers  of  Amer- 
ica. Marion,  the  county  seat,  has  a  pop- 
ulation of  9,582,  and  Herrin,  a  population 
of  10,986.  It  is  conservatively  estimated 
that  85  per  cent  of  the  residents  of  the 
County  are  miners  or  connected  with  them 
by  family  ties  or  otherwise,  and  reflecting 
unionized  labor  sentiment.  All  business 
conducted  in  the  County  is  dependent  to 
a  vital  degree  upon  the  patronage  of  the 
mining  element.  The  mining  vote  elects 
or  defeats  candidates  for  public  office. 


Many  of  the  public  officials  holding 
elective  office  are  miners,  have  been 
miners,  or  are  in  strong  sympathy  with 
union  labor  whose  strength  is  such  that, 
without  question,  it  is  its  vote  that  elects 
or  defeats  any  candidate  for  local  or 
county  office. 

The  most  outstanding  local  figure  in  the 
events  leading  up  to  the  massacre,  is 
Sheriff  Melvin  Thaxton,  who  persistently 
refused  to  swear  his  deputies  or  to  call 
for  the  Illinois  National  Guard,  as  he 
was  urged  to  do  repeatedly  by  Col.  S.  N. 
Hunter,  representing  Adjutant  General 
Carlo  Black  of  Illinois,  for  three  days  be- 
fore the  surrender  and  butchery  of  the 
strip  miners.  Col.  Hunter  had  arrived 
in  Marion  on  June  18  to  keep  an  eye  on 
the  situation.  The  Sheriff  is  an  ex- 
miner,  and  was  elected  by  the  mining 
vote,  and  is  now  a  candidate  for  county 
treasurer. 

There  is  ample  testimony  that  Sheriff 
Thaxton  is  physically  not  a  coward.  In 
times  past  he  has  been  cool,  courageous 
and  vigilant  in  supporting  the  law.  Single- 
handed  he  stopped  thirteen  prisoners  in  a 
jail-breaking  attempt  two  years  ago.  He 
has  to  his  credit  successful  intervention 
in  a  number  of  attempted  lynchings. 

The  Judge  and  the  Mob 

County  Judge  Hartwell  draws  a  picture 
of  the  mob  which  shows  its  caliber  when 
met  by  a  determined  spirit.  A  crowd 
went  to  the  Judge's  home.  They  de- 
manded that  he  deliver  over  to  them  his 
collection  of  firearms.  He  dared  the 
young  fellows  to  come  and  get  them,  at 
the  same  time  directing  his  wife  to  load 
as  he  fired.  The  mob  faded  away. 

Prominent  also  in  the  three  days  pre- 
ceding the  attack  on  the  mine  was  State 
Senator  William  J.  Sneed,  president  of 


the  Sub-District  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America — a  resident  of  Her- 
rin.  He  appears  to  be  the  leading  poli- 
tician of  the  County,  insofar  as  the  labor 
vote  is  concerned.  The  labor  vote,  which 
in  a  previous  election  had  been  led  by 
Sneed  in  the  interests  of  another  political 
faction,  was  reversed  under  Sneed's  con- 
trol and  support  thrown  to  Len  Small, 
successful  candidate  for  Governor. 

The  State's  Attorney  of  Williamson 
County  is  Delos  L.  Duty,  whose  family 
has  been  slightly  identified  with  union 
miner  interests.  Duty,  who  was  elected 
by  miners'  votes,  is  on  record  as  express- 
ing very  serious  doubt  of  his  ability  to 
convict  mob  conspirators,  leaders  and 
members  of  the  mob.  "To  get  a  jury 
not  imbued  with  the  ideas  of  the  labor 
unions  will  be  impossible,  I  believe,"  he 
said,  and  added,  "the  killing  was  un- 
human  beyond  words." 

Brundage  Infers  Conspiracy 

Edward  J.  Brundage,  Attorney  Gen- 
eral of  Illinois,  views  the  Herrin  massacre 
as  "murder  in  cold  blood  after  the  strip 
miners  had  surrendered."  That  the  At- 
torney General  believes  a  conspiracy  ex- 
isted is  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from  his 
statement  that  "the  riot  was  not  spon- 
taneous; the  mob  gathered  from  several 
counties  at  a  central  spot." 

William  M.  McCown  of  Marion,  the 
Coroner  of  Williamson  County,  was  a 
union  miner  and  is  admittedly  a  union 
sympathizer. 

The  principal  business  of  Williamson 
County  is  digging  coal  from  deep  mines, 
of  which  there  are  thirty-two.  There  are 
also  four  strip  mines  where  huge  shovels 
scrape  the  earth  from  thick  veins  of  coal 
which  run  near  the  *  surface.  Other 
shovels  then  lift  this  coal  into  cars.  It 


was  against  the  strip  mine,  owned  by  the 
Southern  Illinois  Coal  Company,  of  which 
William  J.  Lester  is  president,  that  mem- 
bers of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America  directed  an  attack.  As  an  op- 
erator Mr.  Lester  played  a  lone  hand, 
and  was  not  a  member  of  any  coal  oper- 
ators' association. 

Strip  Shovels  Continue  Work 

When  the  deep  mines  were  closed  by 
the  U.  M.  W.  of  A.  strike  April  1,  last, 
the  stripping  shovel  at  the  Lester  mine 
did  not  cease  operations.  The  stripping 
shovel  was  kept  at  work,  meantime,  and 
no  objection  was  made  by  the  strikers  as 
long  as  no  attempt  to  mine  coal  was  made. 
Men  manning  this  shovel,  or  rather  the 
crews  operating  it,  were  members  of  the 
Steam  Shovel  Men's  Union,  an  organiza- 
tion not  affiliated  with  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor. 

About  June  10  Lester  made  preparation 
actually  to  dig  and  load  coal  and  addir 
tional  men,  some  of  whom  were  rated  as 
track  layers  and  others  as  guards,  were 
put  on  the  property.  This  development 
was  instantly  resented  by  the  union 
miners,  and  the  question  arose  as  to  the 
status  of  the  men  employed  at  the  strip 
mine.  There  was  also  the  openly  voiced 
feeling  of  resentment  that  armed  guards 
were  on  duty  at  these  strip  mines. 

As  early  as  June  13,  it  became  mani- 
fest that  a  plot  against  the  mine  was 
brewing.  Robert  Tracy,  of  Chicago,  a 
locomotive  engineer,  reported  to  the  mine 
for  duty,  and  in  examining  the  engine 
firebox  found  ten  sticks  of  dynamite  and 
two  cans  of  powder  therein.  Two  days 
later,  says  Tracy,  picketing  of  the  mine 
began. 

The  Sheriff  and  State's  Attorney  and 
U.  M.  W.  of  A.  officials  protested  to  Mr. 

8 


Lester  and  his  superintendent,  C.  K. 
McDowell,  against  the  employment  of 
these  armed  guards;  said  that  they  were 
trespassing  on  public  property  and  hold- 
ing up  traffic.  The  strip  mine  people 
were  told  that  they  were  courting  destruc- 
tion, if  they  continued  to  dig  coal.  There 
is  on  record  the  statement  that  McDowell 
declared  that  if  any  guards  were  outside 
the  mine  boundary  they  were  disobeying 
his  instructions .  It  was  also  said  by  some 
who  conferred  with  him  that  he  promised 
to  disarm  the  guards,  but  this  is  not  veri- 
fied. 

There  was  talk  of  boycotting  stores 
which  were  supplying  the  men  with  pro- 
visions, and  the  union  miners  also  were 
sent  to  watch  railroad  stations  where  addi- 
tional workmen  for  the  strip  mine  might 
arrive.  Col.  Hunter  notes  that  two  of 
these  workers,  detraining  at  Marion,  were 
intercepted  by  union  miners  and  ordered 
away,  and  did  leave. 

The  Telegram  from  Lewis 

There  was  discussion  among  the  strikers 
as  to  the  status  of  the  strip  mine  workers. 
On  June  18,  Senator  Sneed  wired  John 
L.  Lewis,  International  President  of  the 
TJ.  M.  W.  of  A.,  asking  for  an  official  rul- 
ing on  the  status  of  the  strip  mine  work- 
ers. Sneed  received  the  following  reply: 

Indianapolis,  Ind. 
June  19,  1922. 
William  J.  Sneed, 
Pres.  Sub-District  10 
District  12,  U.  M.  W.  of  A. 

Your  wire  of  eighteenth,  Steam  Shovel 
Men's  Union  was  suspended  from  affilia- 
tion with  American  Federation  of  Labor 
some  years  ago.  It  was  also  ordered  sus- 
pended from  the  mining  department  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  at  the 

9 


Atlantic  City  convention.  We  now  find 
that  this  outlaw  organization  is  permit- 
ting its  members  to  act  as  strike  breakers 
at  numerous  strip  pits  in  Ohio.  This  or- 
ganization is  furnishing  steam  shovel 
engineers  to  work  under  armed  guards 
with  strike  breakers.  It  is  not  true  that 
any  form  of  agreement  exists  by  and  be- 
tween this  organization  and  the  mining 
department  or  any  other  branch  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  permit- 
ting them  to  work  under  such  circum- 
stances. We  have,  through  representa- 
tives, officially  taken  this  question  up 
with  the  officers  of  the  Steam  Shovel 
Men's  Union  and  have  failed  to  secure  any 
satisfaction .  Representatives  of  our  organi- 
zation are  justified  in  treating  this  crowd 
as  an  outlaw  organization  and  in  view- 
ing its  members  in  the  same  light  as  they 
do  any  other  common  strike  breakers. 

(Signed)  JOHN  L.  LEWIS. 

Published  in  Local  Press 

On  Tuesday,  June  20,  this  telegram  was 
printed  in  the  Marion  Daily  Republican 
as  that  paper's  leading  news  article.  It 
was  given  similar  treatment  the  same  day 
in  the  Herrin  Journal.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  contents  of  this 
telegram  became  known  to  practically  all 
of  the  union  miners  and  their  sympa- 
thizers over  the  whole  of  the  coal  field  on 
Tuesday  and  Wednesday. 

The  first  mass  meeting  that  the  miners 
held  after  the  receipt  of  the  telegram  to 
discuss  a  program  of  action  against  the 
strip  mine  workers,  it  is  related  by  Col. 
Hunter,  was  held  early  Tuesday  after- 
noon, June  20.  He  was  informed  that  the 
miners  were  in  session  at  the  Sunnyside 
Mine.  Col.  Hunter  avers  that  he  went 
to  the  office  of  State  Senator  Sneed  and 

10 


told  the  latter  of  the  meeting,  whereupon 
Sneed  replied: 

"I  know  about  it.  There  is  no  cause 
for  alarm." 

Col.  Hunter  says  that  a  little  later  he 
told  Sheriff  Thaxton  of  this  miners'  mass 
meeting  and  asked  the  Sheriff  to  send  a 
deputy,  who  resided  in  Herrin,  to  the 
meeting  and  ascertain  what  was  going  on. 
The  Sheriff  promised  to  do  this,  Col. 
Hunter  says.  There  seems  to  exist  a 
strong  probability  that  some  definite  ac- 
tion against  operations  at  the  strip  mine 
was  agreed  upon  at  this  Tuesday  mass 
meeting. 

The  next  day  another  meeting  took 
place.  Of  what  was  done  at  this  meeting 
and  of  the  effect  actually  had  on  the  minds 
of  the  miners  and  their  friends,  the 
Marion  Daily  Republican  of  June  22, 
said: 

Meeting  in  Cemetery 

"An  indignation  meeting  was  held  in 
the  cemetery  in  Herrin  on  Wednesday 
morning,  June  21,  at  which  time  the 
feeling  was  running  high,  and  the  tele- 
gram of  John  L.  Lewis  calling  these 
shovel  men  common  strike  breakers,  was 
read .  Soon  afterwards  a  mob  raided  three 
hardware  stores  in  Herrin,  obtaining  a 
few  guns  and  rifles  and  5,000  rounds  of 
ammunition  of  all  kinds." 

Walter  M.  Sims,  editor  of  the  Chris- 
topher Progress,  published  in  a  mining 
town  fourteen  miles  from  Herrin,  wrote 
in  his  publication: 

"The  trouble  (the  massacre)  followed 
after  an  indignation  meeting  was  held  just 
outside  of  Herrin  on  a  road  to  the  mine 
Wednesday  morning  following  the  publi- 
cation of  a  telegram  from  John  L.  Lewis, 
president  of  the  United  Mine  Work- 
ers, which  stated  that  the  workmen  at 
the  strip  mine  who  are  members  of  the 

11 


Shovel  Men's  Union  were  'common  strike 
breakers.' ' 

Writing  from  Herrin,  Thoreau  Cronyn 
said  in  the  New  York  Herald  of  July  12: 

"A  veteran  of  Williamson  County  to 
whom  the  correspondent  showed  the  copy 
of  this  (Lewis')  telegram,  pushed  his 
spectacles  up  on  his  forehead  after  reading 
it  and  said: 

"  *  Every  body  down  here  knows  how  the 
union  miners  felt  about  this  and  how  cer- 
tain words  inflame  them.  I  should  not 
say  that  the  word  outlaw  riled  them  so 
much,  but  when  Lewis  officially  told 
them  that  those  fellows  out  at  the  Lester 
mine  were  to  be  treated  like  any  other 
strike  breakers,  I  should  say  that  it  was 
about  the  same  thing  as  saying:  'Hike 
out  there  to  the  mine  and  clean  'em 
out.' ' 

Prominent  business  men  of  Marion  and 
Herrin  say  that  when  they  heard  the  men 
on  the  streets  and  in  business  places  talk- 
ing excitedly  about  the  message  from 
Lewis  that  they  felt  certain  a  violent  out- 
break was  but  hours  distant. 

Out  of  these  meetings  meantime  the 
conspiracy  to  stop  the  operation  of  the 
mine  had  been  developed.  The  initial 
move  to  invest  the  strip  mine  has  all  the 
ear-marks  of  an  organized  effort  and  it  re- 
sulted in  the  first  open  act  of  hostility. 

The  First  Hostile  Act 

On  Wednesday  morning,  June  21,  at 
eight  o'clock,  say  the  union  miners  en- 
trusted with  keeping  any  more  men  from 
reaching  the  strip  mine,  additional  work- 
men were  unloaded  from  the  Chicago 
train  at  Carbondale,  Illinois,  about  four- 
teen miles  from  the  mine.  These  men 
were  put  into  a  mine  truck  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  mine  automobile .  There  were 
eleven  men  in  the  two  machines.  At  a 

12 


point  three  miles  east  of  Carbondale,  men 
in  a  strange  automobile  preceding  the 
truck  fired  shots  into  the  air,  as  if  by  pre- 
arranged signal.  Immediately,  shot  gun 
firing  was  directed  from  underbrush  along 
the  roadside. 

Some  of  the  eleven  strip  mine  workers 
were  wounded  seriously  and  others  fled, 
followed  by  volleys  of  shot  gun  firing. 
"Mark"  Delaney,  who  was  in  charge  of 
the  strip  mine  party,  made  his  way  back 
to  Carbondale  and  telephoned  to  Supt. 
McDowell  at  the  mine,  relating  how  these 
two  automobile  loads  of  men  had  been 
fired  on  and  stating  that  some  of  them 
had  been  wounded  and  taken  to  the  Car- 
bondale hospital. 

Events  Known  to  Officials 

All  these  events  had  not  escaped  the 
ears  and  eyes  of  state,  city  and  county 
officials.  Col.  Hunter,  after  visiting  the 
mine,  talking  to  the  Sheriff,  State's  Attor- 
ney, and  other  city  and  county  officials  in 
Marion  and  Herrin  had  concluded  as  early 
as  Monday,  June  19th:»  that  "the  local 
officers  were  in  sympathy  with  the  bellig- 
erent miners,  but  had  agreed  to  maintain 
order."  He  stated  f  urther, however ,  that  he 
had  no  confidence  in  the  Sheriff's  avowed 
intention  or  his  ability  to  cope  with  the  sit- 
uation and  protect  the  men .  He  made  this 
report  by  telephone  shortly  before  noon 
on  Monday  to  the  Adjutant-General. 

Hunter  told  the  Adjutant-General  that 
the  Sheriff  had  promised  to  protect  prop- 
erty and  life  at  the  mines.  The  Colonel 
advised  the  Adjutant-General  to  have 
two  companies  of  the  Illinois  National 
Guard,  one  at  Salem  and  one  at  Cairo, 
notified  to  be  in  readiness  to  entrain  for 
Marion  on  an  hour's  notice.  These  two 
companies  could  have  been  in  Marion 
within  four  hours. 

13 


The  Sheriff's  Inaction 

The  Adjutant-General  told  Col.  Hunter 
at  this  time  to  "lay  down"  (bear  down)  on 
the  Sheriff  and  have  him  do  his  full  duty 
in  the  way  of  securing  an  extra  force  of 
deputies.  That  afternoon  the  Colonel 
asked  the  Sheriff  what  he  was  doing  to  get 
more  deputies  and  also  informed  him  that 
the  two  companies  of  troops  were  ready 
to  respond  to  any  request  the  Sheriff 
would  make.  The  Sheriff  said  that  ha 
felt  his  regular  force  of  deputies  was  suffi- 
cient for  the  present,  and  that  for  Col. 
Hunter  to  tell  the  Adjutant-General, 
"Troops  would  not  be  needed  to  put  down 
trouble  at  the  mines." 

Later  in  the  evening  Col.  Hunter  re- 
ported to  the  Adjutant-General  that  the 
Sheriff  had  not  sworn  in  more  deputies 
and  did  not  anticipate  the  use  of  troops. 
Col.  Hunter  got  after  the  Sheriff  again  on 
Tuesday  morning  in  regard  to  securing 
additional  deputies.  The  Sheriff  replied 
that  the  wild  talk  was  dying  down,  and 
Col.  Hunter  asked  him  if  this  was  not  a 
result  of  the  wide-spread  rumor  that  two 
regiments  of  troops  were  headed  for 
Marion.  The  Colonel  declared  that  this 
report  was  out  and  did  have  a  noticeably 
quieting  effect  on  the  streets  until  night- 
fall when  there  was  a  resurge  of  excite- 
ment, and  anger  attained  new  heights. 

The  Colonel  talked  to  miners  on  the 
street,  found  they  were  at  the  breaking 
point  and  went  again  to  consult  with  the 
Sheriff.  He  reports  that  he  "demanded 
of  the  Sheriff  that  he  swear  in  a  large 
force  of  deputies,  including  business  men" 
and  was  informed  by  the  Sheriff  that  he 
"had  the  situation  well  in  hand,"  to  which 
Col.  Hunter  replied: 

"Swear  in  deputies  or  ask  for  troops." 

Wednesday  morning,  the  day  before  the 
massacre,  found  events  moving  swiftly 

14 


toward  inevitable  disaster.  State  Senator 
Sneed,  who  had  gone  to  Springfield  on 
official  business  on  Tuesday  evening,  was 
not  available  to  advise  with  the  Sheriff 
the  next  morning.  When  Col.  Hunter 
stepped  out  on  the  street  early  on  June  21 
and  found  the  whole  countryside  was  liter- 
ally boiling  with  excitement  he  imme- 
diately went  to  the  Sheriff's  office  to  see  if 
that  official  had  not  finally  been  stirred 
into  action,  since  it  was  absolutely  clear 
that  a  mob  of  unprecedented  size  was  be- 
ing gathered  to  wreak  vengeance. 

Calling  of  Troops  Urged 

Col.  Hunter  found  the  Sheriff  quite 
placid,  with  no  new  deputies  and  uttering 
his  stereotyped  expression:  "I  have  the 
situation  well  in  hand."  Col.  Hunter 
grew  emphatic  in  urging  the  Sheriff  to 
make  a  request  for  troops.  This  was  done 
in  the  presence  of  State's  Attorney  Duty. 
The  Sheriff  said  that  he  had  no  idea  of 
calling  for  troops  and  Duty  offered  the 
Sheriff  the  advice  that,  "If  I  were  a  Sheriff 
I  would  not  call  for  troops  under  any 
circumstances,"  To  Col.  Hunter,  Duty 
said  that  he  had  full  confidence  in  Sheriff 
Thaxton.  Col.  Hunter  hurried  away 
from  the  Sheriff's  office,  resolved  to  lay  his 
case  before  the  business  men  of  Marion. 
He  got  C.  R.  Edrington,  secretary  of  the 
Greater  Marion  Association,  and  informed 
the  latter  that  the  Sheriff  had  absolutely 
balked  at  swearing  in  deputies  or  making 
a  request  for  troops. 

The  Colonel  and  Edrington  agreed  that 
something  ought  to  be  done  immediately. 
They  decided  that  the  best  move  would 
be  to  get  a  committee  of  reputable  busi- 
ness men,  mine  owners  and  union  miners 
to  visit  the  strip  mine  and  ask  the  men 
there  to  suspend  operations.  By  tele- 
phone they  summoned  A.  B.  McLaren,  a 

15 


wealthy  and  influential  business  man  of 
Marion;  Ralph  Mitchell,  General  Super- 
intendent of  the  Earnest  Coal  Company 
and  W.  H.  Rix,  a  union  mine  worker  offi- 
cial. This  conference  had  hardly  assem- 
bled before  the  news  was  flashed  about  the 
attack  on  the  strip  mine  truck  near  Car- 
bondale.  The  five  men  at  the  conference 
decided  to  do  all  they  could  to  have  a 
larger  meeting  of  business  men  in  the 
evening. 

Edrington  continued  for  some  hours  to 
telephone  to  responsible  people  asking 
them  to  attend  the  contemplated  evening 
conference.  Between  messages  he  re- 
ceived reports  that  armed  men  were  com- 
ing into  the  Herrin  district  from  far  away 
points.  The  business  men  in  touch  with 
Edrington  told  him  that  they  had  this  same 
information.  Edrington  and  Hunter  again 
tried  to  locate  Sheriff  Thaxton  to  apprise 
him  of  what  the  business  men's  committee 
was  attempting  to  accomplish,  and  to  tell 
him  that  a  concerted  assault  on  the  strip 
mine  was  in  prospect,  but  the  Sheriff  had 
gone,  it  was  said,  to  investigate  the  shoot- 
ing at  Carbondale. 

Raids  on  Stores  Begun 

Beginning  about  one  o'clock  and  con- 
tinuing for  a  couple  of  hours  telephone 
messages  were  received  at  the  offices  of 
the  Greater  Marion  Association  relating 
how  hardware  stores  had  been  raided  in 
Herrin  for  guns  and  ammunition. 

Alarm  was  immediately  spread  in 
Marion  advising  merchants  dealing  in  fire- 
arms to  conceal  their  stock .  Two  places  in 
Marion  did  not  get  this  warning  and  were 
raided.  One  small  band  of  would-be 
looters,  called  upon  Edrington  as  head 
of  the  local  American  Legion  Post,  to 
deliver  to  them  several  rifles  belonging 
to  members  of  the  Post.  Edrington  re- 

16 


fused,  explaining  that  there  was  no  am- 
munition available  for  the  guns. 

The  Afternoon  Battle 

On  Wednesday  at  1:37  p.  m.  Col.  Hun- 
ter telephoned  to  Adjutant-General  Black 
reporting  the  attack  on  the  truck  and  the 
looting  of  three  stores  in  Herrin.  Col. 
Hunter  also  told  the  Sheriff's  office  about 
the  stores  being  looted  and  was  informed 
by  a  deputy  sheriff  that  this  was  the 
office's  first  word  of  the  occurrence. 
In  the  meantime  the  organized  armed 
force  of  union  miners,  following  the 
meeting  in  the  cemetery  near  Herrin, 
had  moved  a  couple  of  miles  east  and 
was  ready  to  launch  the  attack  on 
the  strip  mine.  Attackers  deployed  over 
a  front  several  hundred  yards  long  and 
put  the  mine  under  heavy  fire  at  about 
3:00  o'clock.  At  3:15  Supt.  McDowell 
called  the  Greater  Marion  Association's 
office  and  informed  Col.  Hunter  that  a 
battle  was  on  in  full  swing  and  that  five 
hundred  shots  had  been  fired  by  both 
sides.  McDowell  said  that  the  miners  had 
marched  up  close  to  the  mine  and  had 
gone  under  cover.  McDowell  requested 
,Col.  Hunter  to  inform  the  Sheriff  of  the 
battle.  At  the  Sheriff's  office  Deputy 
Storm  reported  the  Sheriff  still  absent. 

"I  instructed  Storm  to  call  on  all  avail- 
able deputies  and  proceed  to  the  mine  to 
disperse  the  mob  and  to  remain  there  un- 
til the  Sheriff  returned,"  says  Col.  Hun- 
ter, who  added  that  he  asked  Storm  to 
get  the  Sheriff  by  telephone  and  tell  him 
that  he  ought  by  all  means  to  put  in  a 
request  for  troops.  Storm's  reply  was 
that  they  "could  handle  the  situation." 

Adjutant-General  Black  was  told  of  the 
latest  situation  by  telephone  and  his  ad- 
vice to  Hunter  was  to  "see  that  the 
Sheriff  gets  on  the  job."  Hunter  got  the 

17 


Sheriff's  office  on  the  wire  again  and  was 
informed  by  whoever  answered  the  tele- 
phone that  Deputy  Storm  was  enroute 
with  deputies  to  the  mine.  That  Storm 
or  deputies  went  to  the  mine  is  unverified. 
A  few  minutes  later  Supt.  McDowell 
called  from  the  mine  to  tell  Col.  Hunter 
that  the  mob  had  gotten  bigger  and  to 
inquire  if  Sheriff  Thaxton  had  been  lo- 
cated. Hunter  told  McDowell  that  he 
had  been  informed  by  the  Sheriff's  office 
that  the  deputies  were  on  the  way  to  the 
mine. 

A  Survivor's  Story 

Engineman  Tracy,  in  his  account  of 
how  he  saw  the  Wednesday  afternoon 
battle  start,  gives  his  opinion  that  the 
shots  fired  at  his  locomotive,  at  that  time 
quite  a  distance  from  the  mine,  were  the 
opening  ones  of  the  attack.  Hardly  had 
he  reached  camp  before  bullets  began  to 
rain  in  from  a  house  and  from  nearby 
clumps  of  trees  and  embankments. 
McDowell  grabbed  a  gun  and  gave  Tracy 
one.  He  mounted  a  ridge  and  began 
shooting. 

Under  oath,  Bernard  Jones,  a  mine 
guard,  says  he  saw  union  scouts  in  the 
woods  June  20th,  and  that  the  following 
afternoon  bullets  began  to  whip  up  the 
earth  near  him.  He  and  three  compan- 
ions mounted  an  elevation  and  made  the 
attackers  retreat  to  a  white  farm  house 
five  hundred  yards  distant. 

At  3:50  p.  m.  Assistant  Mine  Superin- 
tendent John  E.  Shoemaker,  brother-in- 
law  to  W.  J.  Lester,  telephoned  that  fire 
from  the  defenders  had  struck  down  at 
least  two  union  miners  in  the  attacking 
party.  McDowell  took  the  telephone 
again  and  inquired  if  the  Sheriff  had  been 
found  and  had  made  a  request  for  troops. 
All  Hunter  could  tell  McDowell  was  that 
he  was  still  trying  to  locate  the  Sheriff. 

18 


At  4:14  p.  m.,  when  Col.  Hunter  got 
McDowell  on  the  wire  and  found  the 
battle  was  still  raging  and  no  sheriff 
and  no  deputies  could  be  found  to  inter- 
vene, McDowell  put  his  case  in  Hunter's 
hands  and  asked  for  advice.  Imme- 
diately Col.  Hunter  suggested  that  a  truce 
be  effected  and  outlined  terms .  McDowell 
agreed  and  Hunter  told  him  that  he  would 
act  at  once. 

The  Truce 

While  Col.  Hunter  was  trying  to  locate 
union  mine  workers'  officials  relative  to 
the  truce,  he  got  word  from  Mr.  McLaren 
and  C.  F.  Hamilton,  business  partner  of 
Lester,  that  they  had  told  Lester  that  the 
mine  was  under  heavy  fire  and  he  said  he 
would  close  it,  and  that  he  would  try  to 
get  a  telephone  message  through  to 
McDowell  to  this  effect.  McDowell's 
agreement  to  accept  a  truce  was  put  before 
Fox  Hughes,  Sub-District  Vice-President 
and  ranking  U.  M.  W.  of  A.  official  on 
the  spot.  Hunter  asked  Hughes  if  he 
thought  he  could  get  the  attacking  party 
to  agree  to  a  truce  on  the  terms  as  out- 
lined to  McDowell  and  Hughes  replied 
that  he  thought  this  arrangement  would 
be  agreeable  to  the  union  miners  who  were 
attacking. 

"I  told  Hughes  I  would  instruct 
McDowell  to  put  up  a  white  flag  of  truce 
when  he  saw  the  union  miner  officials 
approaching  under  their  white  flag  of 
truce,"  Col.  Hunters  says.  The  Colonel 
then  asserts  that  Hughes  told  him 
that  he  (Hughes)  and  Hugh  Willis  and 
William  G.  Davis  (the  latter  secretary 
and  treasurer  of  the  miners'  union)  — 
these  are  three  of  the  best  known  and  most 
prominent  U.  M.  W.  of  A.  officials  in 
Williamson  County — would  go  to  the 
mine  under  their  white  flag  of  truce. 

Hunter  immediately  advised  McDowell 

19 


that  the  U.  M.  W.  of  A.  officials  had 
agreed  to  the  truce  and  were  headed  for 
the  mine.  He  then  got  Hughes  on  the 
wire  again  and  told  the  latter  of  what  he 
had  just  telephoned  to  McDowell.  Hugh 
Willis  and  Davis  soon  thereafter  appeared 
at  the  mine  under  their  flag  of  truce  and 
the  firing  stopped,  they  later  reported  to 
Hunter.  McDowell  telephoned  to  Hun- 
ter that  the  flags  of  truce  were  flying  and 
that  gun-fire  had  ceased. 

A  short  time  later,  Hughes  and  Willis 
reached  the  office  of  State's  Attorney 
Duty  at  Marion,  and  called  Hunter 
and  his  Aide,  Major  R.  W.  Davis,  to 
Duty's  office.  Sheriff  Thaxton  was  there. 
"Hughes  and  Willis  announced  to  the 
meeting  that  both  sides  at  the  mines  had 
flags  up  and  there  was  no  firing,"  says 
Colonel  Hunter. 

The  White  Flag 

Engineman  Tracy's  version  of  how  the 
truce  was  established  and  firing  brought 
to  an  end  late  Wednesday  afternoon  is 
substantially  as  follows:  he  stayed  on  the 
elevated  point  using  his  rifle  until  Superin- 
tendent McDowell  went  up  to  him  and 
said  to  him,  "The  Union  President  is 
there  and  I  am  going  to  have  a  conference 
to  stop  the  firing."  Tracy  did  cease 
shooting  and  says  that  "A.  P.  Finley, 
the  time  keeper,  got  out  a  white  sheet  and 
sent  it  by  a  man  named  Jones  to  Tracy, 
who  hung  it  up  on  the  wires."  Tracy  esti- 
mates he  was  shot  at  about  fifty  times 
while  he  was  hanging  the  sheet  up,  but 
that  this  firing  died  away  and  he  crawled 
down  and  out  of  danger. 

Tracy  makes  this  peculiar  comment, 
"then  it  developed  the  miners'  president 
had  not  appeared  after  all,"  and  he  adds 
that  there  was  sniping  all  through  the 
night.  He  said  he  could  hear  the  attack- 

20 


ers  drilling  in  the  field  surrounding  the 
mine  and  that  the  commands  "squads 
right"  and  "squads  left"  came  clearly  to 
his  ears. 

The  Terms 

At  the  Wednesday  evening  meeting  in 
State's  Attorney  Duty's  office,  where  Col. 
Hunter  and  Ma j .  Davis  went  in  response 
to  a  telephone  call  from  Fox  Hughes  and 
Hugh  Willis,  Sheriff  Thaxton  also  being 
present,  Col.  Hunter  says  he  repeated  the 
statement  that  responsible  business  men 
of  Marion  who  had  talked  over  long  dis- 
tance telephone  to  the  owner  of  the  strip 
mine,  had  given  him  (Col.  Hunter)  posi- 
tive and  reliable  assurance  that  the  mine 
would  be  abandoned  and  closed  so  long  as 
the  TJ.  M.  W.  of  A.  strike  lasted.  The 
Colonel  asserts  that  there  was  a  clear 
understanding  of  all  the  terms  of  the 
truce,  which  both  sides  had  accepted. 
The  Colonel  says  these  terms  were  under- 
stood by  everybody  at  this  meeting  to  be 
as  follows: 

(1)  Both  sides  to  hoist  flags  of  truce 
and  cease  firing. 

(2)  The  men  in  the  strip  mine  to  be 
afforded  protection  in  getting  out  of  the 
County  and  that  the  mine  property  be 
not  damaged. 

(3)  The  mine  to  be  closed  for  the 
duration  of  the  U.  M.  W.  of  A.  strike. 

Hughes  and  Willis  left  the  conference. 
Turning  to  Sheriff  Thaxton,  Col.  Hunter 
asked  him  point  blank  if  he  felt  sure 
he  could  hold  up  his  end  of  the  truce 
agreement  and  the  Sheriff  then  stated  that 
he  had  "deputies  at  the  mine  who  could 
handle  the  situation,  and  that  he  felt  cer- 
tain the  truce  would  be  observed  and  the 
trouble  ended." 

21 


Refuse  to  Call  Troops 

Despite  this  assurance  given  by  the 
Sheriff,  Col.  Hunter  was  uneasy  during 
the  evening.  He  found  that  the  tele- 
phone wires  at  the  mine  had  been  cut 
and  dynamite  blasts  were  heard  from 
the  direction  of  the  mine.  He  urged  the 
Sheriff,  as  a  matter  of  protecting  the  pris- 
oners on  march  from  the  mine  in  the  morn- 
ing, to  make  an  official  request  for  troops. 
The  Sheriff  refused.  Col.  Hunter  then 
asked  the  Sheriff  to  go  to  the  mine  with 
him  and  personally  see  to  it  that  the  truce 
was  lived  up  to .  The  Sheriff  also  declined 
to  do  this,  saying  he  was  tired  and  was 
going  home  and  to  bed.  This  was  near- 
ing  11:00  o'clock. 

During  the  conference,  when  the  U.  M. 
W.  of  A.  officials  were  present,  an  agree- 
ment was  reached  that  all  of  those  then 
in  the  room  should  go  to  the  mine  in  the 
morning.  Col.  Hunter  suggested  that  the 
hour  of  departure  be  at  5  or  6  o'clock. 
Sheriff  Thaxton,  however,  set  8  a.  m.  as 
the  hour  for  leaving. 

At  6:00  o'clock  the  next  morning  and 
again  at  8:00  a.  m.,  Col.  Hunter  and 
Major  Davis  were  at  the  door  of  the  Sher- 
iff's office  and  found  it  locked.  It  was 
8:30  o'clock  before  they  encountered  the 
Sheriff  leisurely  walking  on  the  public 
square.  Hughes  and  Willis,  the  U.  M. 
W.  of  A.  officials  who  had  promised  to  be 
members  of  the  Sheriff's  party,  were  not 
to  be  found.  Col.  Hunter,  Major  Davis, 
the  Sheriff  and  one  of  the  deputies,  Shef- 
fer,  started  by  automobile  for  the  mine. 

They  arrived  there  at  about  the  hour 
when  the  massacre  was  taking  place  in 
the  woods  two  miles  distant .  They  found 
the  mine  swarming  with  men  engaged  in 
pillage  and  arson  and  who  continued  the 
destruction  of  property  under  the  very  eyes 
of  the  officers  and  defied  interruption. 

22 


The  Surrender 

It  had  been  Col.  Hunter's  original 
thought  that  if  a  truce  could  be  effected 
quickly  enough,  that  the  men  in  the  mine 
should  vacate  before  night  fall,  but  it  was 
around  6:30  o'clock  before  the  flags  were 
hoisted  and  the  firing  ceased.  No  arrange- 
ment, however,  were  made  to  afford  safe 
escort  to  the  men  that  evening. 

Some  of  the  prisoners  who  survived 
the  next  day's  massacre,  say  that  there 
was  sporadic  shooting  during  hours  of 
darkness  when  the  attacking  miners 
swarmed  into  the  big  gulches  dug  by  the 
steam  shovels  and  drew  a  tight  circle 
around  the  bunk  cars  and  coal  cars  where 
the  strip  mine  workers  spent  the  night. 
At  least  five  big  charges  of  dynamite 
were  exploded  against  mine  machinery 
and  property.  One  blast  was  set  off 
within  thirty  feet  of  the  bunk  cars  where 
the  strip  miners  were  housed. 

Tracy's  description  of  the  surrender 
Thursday  morning  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
nected that  has  been  given.  He  relates 
that  instructions  were  given  to  the  men 
in  the  mine  not  to  fire  any  more  but  that 
some  one  should  be  sent  out  from  the  strip 
mine  party  with  a  truce  flag.  Tracy  over- 
heard McDowell  tell  his  assistant,  John 
E.  Shoemaker,  a  civil  engineer,  son  of  the 
Mayor  of  Charleston,  Illinois,  that  there 
should  be  no  shooting  and  the  truce  flag 
should  be  carried  out. 

A  big  fellow,  known  as  "Mac,"  had  not 
stepped  out  over  20  yards  from  the  cars 
when  he  was  fired  on  and  he  ran  back, 
says  Tracy,  who  continues: 

"Either  Mac  or  Jones  then  marched 
out  with  a  cook's  apron  tied  to  a  broom. 
I  heard  several  of  the  attackers  then  say 
that  if  we  would  march  out  and  lay  down 
our  arms  they  would  not  harm  us.  They 


shouted  they  would  take  us  on  a  train 
and  let  us  go  back  home." 

Prisoners  Throw  Up  Hands 

Tracy  says  that  all  rifles  were  laid  down 
and  shells  put  between  cars  and  that  all 
the  prisoners  put  their  hands  over  their 
heads  and  walked  out  into  the  open. 
This  was  in  accordance  with  instructions 
given  by  the  attacking  miners  and  repeat- 
ed by  McDowell  and  Shoemaker,  as  an 
order  to  the  strip  miners,  Tracy  avers. 
The  attackers  came  hurrying  up  from  all 
directions,  some  of  them  firing  their  guns. 
They  yelled  in  exultation. 

"A  man  who  acted  like  a  leader  shouted 
at  them  to  quit  firing  at  us,"  Tracy  goes 
on.  "He  was  a  little  heavy  set  fellow 
about  forty  or  forty-five  years  old ,  weighed 
about  170  pounds,  dark  complected 
and  dressed  in  a  dark  suit.  He  waved  a 
big  automatic  pistol  and  yelled  'Now  you 
ought  to  use  judgment,  there  is  no  use 
getting  excited  or  starting  any  trouble 
whatever.  I  am  a  leader  of  this  bunch. 
Listen  to  me  and  we  will  take  them  down 
the  road.' 

"A  mob  yelled  him  down  and  some  of 
them  told  him  if  he  didn't  shut  up  they 
would  shoot  him.  They  said  they  were 
going  to  kill  the  whole  bunch." 

The  march  smacked  very  much  of  mili- 
tary discipline,  and  although  there  were  at 
least  3 ,000  men  mostly  armed  in  the  crowd 
around  the  prisoners,  those  in  charge 
were  able  to  secure  obedience  to  their 
orders. 

Tracy  describes  how  ill  treatment  of  the 
prisoners  was  kept  up  as  they  marched 
along  but  the  violence  was  not  desperate 
except  in  the  case  of  McDowell.  He  was 
made  an  immediate  target  for  blows 
which  were  not  long  in  bringing  about 
his  death. 

24 


Jones's  Story 

Another  account  of  the  surrender  and 
start  of  the  march  from  the  mine  is  given 
under  oath  by  Bernard  Jones,  the  mine 
guard  who  was  quoted  above.  Jones  says 
of  the  Thursday  morning  events: 

"The  white  sheet  (the  flag  of  truce  on 
the  wires)  was  taken  down  because  the 
mob  yelled  'Take  that  damned  flag  down.' 
We  knew  there  would  be  a  battle." 

The  prisoners  felt  they  were  in  a  trap 
and  some  of  them  were  panic  stricken, 
Jones  asserts.  McDowell  said  "Some- 
body ought  to  go  talk  to  the  attackers." 
Jones  says  that  he  went  out  with  an  apron 
tied  to  a  broom  and  told  the  victors  that 
the  strip  mine  workers  were  ready  to  sur- 
render provided  they  were  given  the  assur- 
ance of  being  allowed  to  walk  out  unmo- 
lested. Jones  says  he  called  out,  "I  want 
to  talk  to  you"  and  that  a  leader  answered. 
Jones  describes  this  leader  as  being  24  or 
25  years  old,  weight  160,  5  feet  9,  with 
sharp,  freckled  face,  light  haired  and  tot- 
ing a  rifle.  This  leader,  Jones  asserts, 
agreed  to  the  proposition  of  letting  them 
out  unmolested  provided  "you  come  out 
unarmed,  with  your  hands  up  in  the  air." 

McDowell  overheard  this  promise,  says 
Jones,  with  the  result  that  "we  were  all 
formed  in  line,  hands  up,  and  walked  west 
on  the  railroad  tracks  150  yards  to  where 
the  union  men  were  congregated.  The 
prisoners  were  covered  with  rifles  and 
pistols  by  their  captors  who  rushed  up 
close  and  searched  them  for  weapons." 

Jones  estimated  that  there  were  3,000 
armed  men  in  the  crowd  to  which  they  sur- 
rendered. He  said  the  victors  began  slap- 
ping the  prisoners  who  were  marched  two 
abreast  down  Uie  railway  tracks.  About 
200  yards  had  been  covered  when  the 
prisoners  were  told  to  take  their  hands 
down  and  their  hats  off.  McDowell  was 

25 


struck  and  kicked.  When  the  prisoners 
were  forced  to  go  on  a  trot  McDowell 
was  unable  to  keep  up  because  of  his  peg 
leg  and  he  fell  two  or  three  times.  The 
treatment  of  McDowell  soon  became  so 
brutal  that  he  could  go  no  further. 

The  Murder  of  McDowell 

Tracy  describes  the  killing  of  McDowell 
in  more  detail.  The  procession  had  got- 
ten to  a  place  called  Crenshaw  Crossing 
and  the  prisoners  were  being  beaten  pretty 
generally  when  a  new  leader  appeared, 
and  was  hailed  as  "Tom"  or  "Bill." 
Tracy  describes  him  thus:  "A  big  fellow, 
50,  stout,  weight  190,  5  feet  10,  with  a 
week's  growth  of  beard,  rawboned,  dress- 
ed roughly,  wearing  blue  overalls  and  felt 
hat."  This  leader  singled  out  McDowell 
and  said  to  the  latter  that  he  had  put 
Howat  in  jail  in  Kansas  but  would  never 
put  anybody  else  in  jail. 

This  leader  began  beating  McDowell 
over  the  head  with  a  .45  caliber  automatic 
pistol  and  kept  it  up  for  about  200  yards 
when  he  took  McDowell  out  of  line  and 
knocked  him  down  with  a  heavy  blow  on 
the  side  of  the  head.  Tracy  said  he  saw 
some  six  or  eight  women,  some  of  them 
carrying  babies  in  their  arms,  kick 
McDowell.  Tracy  did  not  see  this  par- 
ticular leader  any  more.  The  captives 
were  nearing  the  place  where  the  ghastly 
job  was  to  be  done  and  the  leaders,  se- 
lected for  this  work,  began  to  spread  their 
instructions  to  the  armed  strikers,  as  the 
following  versions  of  survivors  show: 

Halt  to  the  march  was  called,  says 
Jones,  by  "a  gray  haired  man,  weight  190 
to  195,  aged  45  or  50,  so  gray  he  was 
wh^te,  stubby  mustache,  in  overalls,  wav- 
ing a  .45  caliber  Colt  who  shouted:  'I 
want  to  shoot  all  the  *  *  *  ' 

Jones  says  the  reply  made  to  this  gray 

26 


haired  man  was  "We  will  take  care  of 
them  when  we  get  to  Herrin."  The 
march  was  continued  about  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  further  up  the  road  when  another 
fellow  stepped  in  and  made  a  speech, 
Jones  says,  about  what  should  be  done 
"to  us  on  account  of  his  beloved  union 
brothers  being  bumped  off  the  day  before 
or  being  killed."  Under  oath  Jones  de- 
clares: "The  speaker  said  'Boys  I  will 
show  you  what  to  do  with  them.' ' 

This  speaker  is  described  by  Jones  as 
5  feet  9  or  10  inches,  weight  190,  dark 
hair,  dark  complexion,  dressed  in  dark 
clothes  and  carrying  a  revolver.  One 
young  fellow  in  the  crowd  shouted  to 
the  speaker  "Listen,  buddy,  don't  rush 
things,  don't  go  too  fast." 

To  this  the  new  leader  replied:  "To 
Hell .  You  don't  know  nothing ,  you  have 
been  here  only  a  day  or  so,  I  have  been  here 
for  years,  I  have  lost  my  sleep  4  or  5 
nights  watching  those  scabs  and  I  am  go- 
ing to  see  them  taken  care  of." 

But  the  march  was  continued  until  the 
procession  drew  very  close  to  the  power 
plant  where  a  halt  again  was  called.  Jones 
describes  how,  at  this  point  there  came 
up  from  the  rear  a  "heavy  built  man,  dark 
complexion,  dark  haired,  wearing  a  Fe- 
dora hat,"  who  talked  to  the  miners  at 
the  head  of  the  line  and  asked  who  had 
operated  the  machine  gun.  This  ques- 
tion was  put  to  the  prisoners,  who  said 
they  didn't  know. 

Tracy  remarks  that  it  was  at  this  point 
a  man  "who  all  the  strip  miners  said  was 
an  officer  of  the  Miners'  Local  appeared 
in  an  automobile,  drew  the  mob  leader 
aside  and  after  talking  to  him  pointed  to 
the  woods." 

The  Massacre 

Tracy  says  this  man  in  the  automobile 
then  drove  away  while  the  leader  led  the 

27 


column  into  the  woods  and  commanded 
that  "every  fellow  that  has  got  a  rifle 
come  forward;  you  fellows  that  ain't  got 
no  rifles  stay  back."  Tracy  estimated 
that  about  500  men,  carrying  pistols, 
rifles,  shot  guns,  and  all  kinds  of  weapons 
followed  the  prisoners  into  the  woods. 
The  leader  lined  the  strip  miners  up  at  a 
barbed  wire  fence  and  shouted  "when  I 
give  the  command  every  fellow  fire." 

At  this  order  there  was  a  rush  among 
the  armed  men  to  get  close  up  in  front. 
Tracy  says  he  could  "hear  the  guns  cock 
as  they  pulled  up."  Then  came  the  order 
to  run.  Tracy  ducked  under  the  fence 
and  fled  at  top  speed,  turning  only  to  look 
back  and  see  men  fall  while  their  pursuers 
reloaded  and  shot  into  them  again. 

Jones  remembers  someone  saying,  just 
before  the  massacre  took  place : 

"Listen  men,  I  want  to  talk  to  you. 
We  can't  take  these  men  to  Herrin  but  it 
will  be  all  right  to  take  them  out  into  the 
woods  and  field  and  start  them  on  the 
run  and  then  all  of  you  can  get  a  shot  at 
them." 

This  plan  prevailed.  After  a  while, 
Jones  says,  the  order  to  fire  came  from  the 
"leader  and  the  rest  of  them,  all  of  them." 
Jones  heard  them  shout  "come  on  you  and 
start  to  run  for  that  fence  and  field." 
It  is  Jones'  opinion  that  several  shots 
were  fired  before  anybody  started  to  run. 

From  Eye  Witnesses 

Two  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat  reporters 
seated  in  an  automobile  pulled  up  at 
the  edge  of  a  road,  saw  the  cavalcade  pass. 
They  wrote  as  follows:  "The  advanced 
guard  rattling  by  in  scores  of  flivvers  had 
screeched  the  news  *  We  got  'em .  They're 

28 


coming/  And  they  came,  the  limping 
mine  superintendent  blinking  and  trying 
to  ward  off  further  blows."  Others  were 
about  as  much  battered. 

A  semi-official  account  of  what  hap- 
pened after  the  prisoners  had  passed  a 
point  where  the  two  newspaper  men  saw 
them  is  as  follows: 

The  Slaughter  at  the  Fence 

* » 

The  first  desperate  violence  to  the  prison- 
ers came  after  fresh  bands  of  men  from 
Zeigler  and  other  points  had  joined  the 
mob  marching  the  prisoners  toward  Her- 
rin. 

Approaching  the  power  plant,  a  young 
chap,  about  five  feet  seven  tall,  to  whom 
recognition  was  given  as  leader,  halted  the 
prisoners  and  their  escorts.  He  gave 
orders  for  the  column  to  move  to  the  right 
which  would  take  the  prisoners  off  the 
road  and  put  them  into  the  woods  back 
of  the  power  house. 

At  a  point  immediately  in  the  rear  of 
the  power  house  and  not  more  than  250 
feet  distant  from  it,  the  prisoners  were 
halted  about  twenty  feet  from  a  four- 
strand  barbed  wire  fence .  The  prisoners , 
46  or  47  of  them,  were  lined  up  as  targets. 
The  500  armed  men  were  arranged  in 
two  squads,  forming  a  shallow  "V"  or 
semi-circle.  This  boxed  the  prisoners  in 
and  gave  them  no  opportunity  to  get 
away  from  the  gun-fire  except  through  the 
barbed  wire.  The  command,  was  given, 
and  the  dead  and  wounded  began  to  drop 
and  a  "rabbit"  hunt  with  men  as  the 
game  ensued.  Many  who  got  through 
the  wire  were  killed  and  others  wounded. 
Some  of  the  wounded  were  mutilated  after 

£9 


they  had  been  brought  down  to  earth  by 
bullets. 

Reporter  Sees  Mutilated  Victims 

The  first  newspaper  man  to  arrive  on 
the  scene,  in  the  woods,  J.  E.  Hendricks, 
of  the  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch  had  been 
held  up  an  hour  in  Herrin  by  a  crowd 
which  had  told  him  that  what  was  going 
on  was  the  town's  own  business  and  was 
nothing  for  the  newspapers.  Finally  he 
got  free  enough  to  follow  a  crowd  stream- 
ing from  Herrin  to  a  woods  on  the  edge  of 
town.  Arriving  at  the  scene  of  the 
massacre,  he  saw  several  of  the  prisoners 
with  throats  cut  and  one  man  hanging 
to  a  tree.  At  another  point  where  it  ap- 
peared at  least  six  men  had  been  taken 
into  a  cemetery,  and  three  killed  and  three 
wounded,  their  clothing  showed  they  had 
been  dragged  over  the  ground,  after  hav- 
ing been  tied  with  rope.  In  the  far  dis- 
tance men  could  be  seen  running,  pursued 
by  little  groups  of  other  men,  much  as 
rabbits  running  from  hounds. 

Another  account,  given  by  a  man  who 
went  unarmed  with  the  mob,  says: 

"I  saw  one  man  shot  with  a  shot  gun 
which  tore  a  hole  in  him  where  you  could 
see  his  heart  and  it  was  shot  half  in  two. 
One  fellow  begged  me  to  help  him.  I 
told  him  if  I  saw  anyone  looking  for  him 
I  wouldn't  show  them  where  he  was,  but 
that  was  all  I  could  do  for  him.  He  just 
begged  me  not  to  shoot  him.  He  said 
the  other  man  told  five  of  them  that  they 
would  turn  them  loose  if  they  could  run 
through  fire  and  they  said  they  would. 
The  other  four  were  killed  and  he  was 
shot  twice,  but  not  bad." 

30 


Stories  of  Slaughter 

The  Associated  Press  correspondent 
whose  accounts  of  the  massacre  atrocities 
made  the  nation  shudder  with  horror  and 
caused  Congressman  Dennison  to  attempt 
denial  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  under- 
went gun-fire  and  more  than  once  risked 
his  life  to  witness  the  concluding  phases 
of  the  massacre.  This  man  is  a  veteran 
reporter  from  the  Chicago  office  of  the 
Associated  Press. 

Arriving  in  Marion  at  8  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  butchery  he  was  rushed  by 
automobile  to  the  mine  where  he  saw  Col. 
Hunter  and  others  making  futile  effort  to 
check  the  work  of  the  firebugs  and  looters. 
He  was  told  that  the  strip  miners  had 
surrendered  and  hearing  gunfire  coming 
from  the  direction  they  had  taken,  he 
jumped  back  in  his  auto  and  went  in  pur- 
suit of  the  marchers.  This  was  just  about 
the  moment  when  the  shooting  at  the 
barbed  wire  was  taking  place. 

Some  ten  minutes  drive  from  the  mine, 
the  hired  chauffeur  refused  to  go  further 
because  a  crowd  of  armed  men  could  be 
seen  on  a  knoll  near  the  road.  The 
A.  P.  man  proceeded  on  foot.  He  found 
several  jeering  six  of  the  victims,  three 
of  whom  yet  exhibited  signs  of  life.  All 
had  ropes  around  their  necks.  He  heard 
one  of  the  wounded  men  beg  piteously  for 
a  drink  of  water.  At  this,  he  hurried  to 
a  house  100  yards  distant,  picked  up  a 
small  pail  partly  filled  with  water  and 
ran  back  toward  the  spot. 

He  was  stopped  by  a  large  man  of  the 
mountaineer  type  who  pulled  a  pistol 
from  his  holster  and  commanded  "keep 
back  there,  don't  come  around  these  fel- 
lows." Others  in  the  crowd  drew  pistols 
and  menaced  him.  The  leader  was  of 
distinctive  appearance,  weight  about  200, 
age  about  45,  height  six  feet  two,  raw- 

31 


boned,  much  sunburned,  light  hair,  a 
clearly  American  type.  He  wore  faded 
blue  overalls  and  shirt  and  spoke  slowly, 
but  without  a  Southern  drawl.  The  brim 
of  his  black  slouch  hat  was  covered  with 
dust,  as  though  he  had  been  with  the 
marchers  from  the  start. 

Two  of  the  three  wounded  men  con- 
tinued to  plead  for  water.  "Give  me  a 
drink  before  I  die,"  said  one  of  them. 
At  this  a  comely  woman  of  24  years  ap- 
parelled neatly  in  a  light  flowered  cloth 
dress  and  carrying  an  infant  of  a  year  in 
her  arms,  put  her  foot  on  the  body  of  the 
suppliant  and  exclaimed:  "I'll  see  you  in 
hell  before  you  get  any  water." 

The  Man  Hunt 

The  Associated  Press  correspondent 
was  then  ordered  to  "move  along."  As 
he  neared  the  woodland  massacre  scene 
he  saw  three  men  jump  from  hiding  places 
about  100  yards  distant  and  run  for  their 
lives.  Some  200  yards  from  the  running 
men  there  appeared  a  group  of  pursuers 
who  fired  as  they  leaped  forward.  Ten 
seconds  later  another  band  began  shoot- 
ing at  the  fleeing  prisoners.  The  Asso- 
ciated Press  man  was  caught  in  a  cross 
fire  with  bullets  whizzing  past  him  from 
two  points.  As  he  raced  for  safety  he 
turned  to  see  one  of  the  three  prisoners 
fall .  What  happened  further  to  the  fallen 
man  or  his  companions  the  Associated 
Press  man  could  not  see. 

Getting  into  the  woods  where  the 
butchery  had  reached  its  height,  the 
Associated  Press  correspondent  came  up- 
on a  man  strung  up  to  the  stub  of  a  broken 
tree  limb.  Lying  on  the  ground  a  few 
feet  distant  were  two  other  men,  each 
with  a  rope  around  his  neck.  It  did  not 
appear  they  had  been  hanged  but  both 
were  dead  of  bullet  wounds. 

32 


The  woods  were  swarming  with  men 
armed  with  pistols  and  shot  guns.  Two 
men  carried  sawed  off  riot  guns.  The 
Associated  Press  correspondent,  at  a 
point  about  100  yards  distant  from  the 
hanged  man,  stopped  beside  a  wounded 
man  who  was  writhing  in  agony  and  ask- 
ing for  a  drink:  "I  wish  I  was  dead"  he 
muttered.  A  half  dozen  times  he  said 
this. 

Pleas  for  Mercy  Bring  Kicks 

Instead  of  exciting  pity,  the  man's  dy- 
ing words  seemed  to  make  the  men  stand- 
ing around  him  angrier  than  before.  They 
cursed  and  kicked  him.  Apparently  irri- 
tated beyond  control,  a  man  of  foreign 
type,  stockily  built,  about  five  feet  seven 
in  height,  with  high  cheek  bones,  a  long 
flowing  mustache  and  chin  that  came  to  a 
sharp  point  opened  a  pocket  knife  and 
with  the  exclamation,  "I'll  make  you 
dead"  plunged  the  blade  into  the  helpless 
prisoner's  throat. 

Although  it  was  thought  for  a  time  that 
six  of  the  prisoners  had  been  cut  out  of 
line  and  tied  together  and  then  shot  down 
before  the  procession  reached  the  power 
house  woods,  the  best  account  of  this 
incident  now  has  it  that  the  six  were 
stragglers  who  had  gotten  through  the 
barb  wire  and  were  rounded  up,  roped 
together  and  marched  through  the  Herrin 
Cemetery,  then  marched  back  out  of 
Herrin  and  told  to  run.  Gun  fire  brought 
one  of  them  down,  and  he  pulled  the 
others  off  their  feet.  Their  pursuers  then 
rushed  up  close  and  fired  into  them  at  a 
distance  of  four  or  five  feet. 

One  of  these  men,  Howard  Hoffman,  of 
Huntington,  Indiana,  lived  long  enough 
to  reach  the  hospital  where  he  is  credited 
with  telling  Doctor  Black  and  the  nurse 
that  his  throat  was  cut  and  men  jumped  on 
him  after  he  was  down.  Another  one  of 

33 


these  men  told  the  doctor  or  nurse  at  the 
Herrin  Hospital  how,  after  he  had  fallen, 
one  of  the  men  stretched  his  head  back  as 
far  as  possible  so  that  another  might  easily 
cut  his  throat.  This  man  died  without 
his  name  being  learned  and  he  was  buried 
with  the  other  unidentified  dead  in  the 
Potters  Field  at  Herrin. 

At  the  Morgue 

On  the  street  in  front  of  the  morgue  in 
Herrin,  the  following  day,  the  Associated 
Press  man,  encountered  the  mountaineer- 
like  man  who  had  held  him  back  from  giv- 
ing a  drink  to  the  wounded  man  on  the 
knoll.  Asked  when  the  inquest  would  be 
held,  the  big  man  replied:  "There  don't 
need  to  be  any  inquest,  everybody  knows 
they're  dead."  The  dead  were  first  piled 
in  a  heap  in  a  corner  in  the  morgue. 
Later  the  clothing  was  removed  from  all 
the  bodies  and  they  were  laid  in  a  row 
and  thus  exposed  wholly  to  view.  Lines 
of  men,  women,  boys  and  girls  filed 
through  the  morgue  and  joked  at  the 
sight.  Later  some  portions  of  the  bodies 
were  covered.  Here  and  there  was  a 
body  so  filled  with  small  shot  that  scarce 
a  half  inch  square  surface  of  the  skin  had 
escaped. 

The  visitors  did  not  hesitate  to  gloat 
over  the  "fine"  work  the  mob  had  done. 
One  woman  leading  a  little  boy,  exclaimed 
as  she  directed  his  attention  to  the  lifeless 
bodies:  "Take  a  look  at  what  your  papa 
did,  kid." 

^  Edward  Miller,  1545  North  Clark  St., 
Chicago,  told  a  St,  Louis  Post-Dispatch 
reporter  that  he  and  another  of  the  strip 
mine  men  escaped  wounded  into  a  barn 
where  they  were  located  by  man  hunters 
who  fired  bullets  into  both  of  them,  kill- 
ing Miller's  companion. 

Robert  McLennon,  Jr.,  of  525  N.  La 

34 


Salle  St.,  Chicago,  told  the  same  reporter 
that  the  cool-headed  miners  who  were 
escorting  the  prisoners  were  outnumbered 
from  the  start  by  miners  who  wanted  to 
kill.  The  leaders  counseled  against  vio- 
lence until  the  woods  were  reached,  said 
McLennon. 

Fred  Bernard  of  Chicago,  escaped  by 
turning  left  when,  as  he  says,  the  leader 
of  the  mob  gave  the  command  to  "turn 
right."  He  was  fired  upon  and  fell  un- 
hurt. Pursuers  ran  up  to  him.  He  told 
them  he  had  a  union  card  in  his  pocket. 
He  finally  proved  he  was  an  Elk  and  was 
given  assistance  in  escaping. 

Sherman  Holman,  one  of  the  wounded 
survivors,  declares  he  fell  wounded  along 
side  Assistant  Superintendent  John  E. 
Shoemaker  and  describes  how  pursuers 
came  up  and  remarked  "the  *  *  is 

still  breathing,  anybody  got  a  shell?" 
and  that  Shoemaker  was  then  shot 
through  the  head. 

The  Coroner's  Jury 

At  the  inquest  held  by  Coroner  McCown 
in  Herrin  on  Sunday,  June  25th,  over  the 
bodies  of  21  victims  of  the  massacre,  no 
effort  was  made  to  establish  the  identity 
of  any  of  the  men  who  killed  the  unarmed 
prisoners.  "Parties  unknown"  did  the 
killing  according  to  the  verdict. 

The  Verdict 

About  twenty -five  witnesses  were  exam- 
ined by  the  jury  and  the  following  verdict 
was  returned: 

"In  the  matter  of  inquisition  over  the 
bodies  of  deceased  held  at  Herrin,  Illi- 
nois, on  the  25th  day  of  June  A.  D. 
1922,  we,  the  undersigned  jurors,  find 
that  they  came  to  their  deaths  by  gun 
shot  wounds  by  the  hands  of  parties 

35 


unknown  on  the  22nd  date  of  June  A.  D. 
1922. 

"We,  the  undersigned  jurors,  find  from 
the  evidence  that  the  deaths  of  decedents 
were  due  to  the  act,  direct  and  indirect, 
of  the  officials  of  the  Southern  Illinois 
Coal  Company.  We  recommend  that  an 
investigation  be  conducted  for  the 
purpose  of  fixing  the  blame  personally 
on  the  individuals  responsible." 

The  record  also  says  that  one  man  was 
burned  with  a  hot  iron;  that  a  hot  iron 
was  used  to  mutilate  the  dead.  It  was 
also  stated  this  was  true  by  Editor  Dro- 
beck  who  described  how  the  word  "scab" 
was  branded  on  Supt.  McDowell's  body. 

Proof  of  a  Plot 

That  the  massacre  was  the  result  of  an 
organized  movement  is  the  conclusion 
drawn  from  the  following  statements: 

It  was  a  seemingly  well  organized, 
remarkably  sober,  determined,  resolute 
aggregation  of  men  and  boys  fighting,  as 
they  put  it  in  their  own  words  "to  pre- 
serve the  unions," 

is  the  declaration  of  Colonel  Hunter. 

Writing  in  the  Williamson  County 
Miner,  the  publication  owned  by  the 
U.  M.  W.  of  A.  men  in  this  field,  Editor 
Drobeck  as  an  eye  witness,  says: 

At  daybreak  the  3,000  armed  citizens 
(surrounding  the  mine)  realizing  that  the 
future  peace  of  their  county  was  at  stake, 
formed  what  has  been  termed  by  many, 
one  of  the  neatest  columns  of  troops  ever 
seen  in  the  vicinity,  worked  their  way 
into  the  stronghold  of  the  outlaws  and 
captured  those  that  remained  alive. 

36 


Several  of  those  that  were  taken  from  the 
pit  alive  were  taken  to  the  woods  near 
Herrin,  where  later  they  were  found  dead 
and  dying.  There  were  no  riots,  merely 
the  citizens  of  the  county  acting  in  the 
only  way  left  them  for  the  safety  of  their 
homes.  The  faces  of  the  men  who  were 
killed  in  the  disturbance  are  horrible 
sights.  Uncouth,  as  all  crooks  must  be 
at  the  beginning,  they  were  doubly  un- 
attractive as  seen  after  justice  had 
triumphed  and  the  county  had  again  re- 
sumed its  normal  peace-time  behavior. 

Editor  Sims  in  the  Christopfwr  Progress 
says: 

The  whole  of  Williamson  and  Franklin 
counties  was  in  turmoil  until  late  Thurs- 
day and  on  Wednesday  afternoon  the 
miners  in  Zeigler  and  West  Frankfort 
were  canvassing  the  business  districts 
and  homes  for  arms  and  ammunition, 
and  we  doubt  whether  there  was  much  of 
either  one  left  in  their  towns  after  the 
cars  had  left  for  the  scene  on  Wednesday 
evening. 

We  have  talked  to  several  who  were 
near  the  scene  of  rioting  and  many  have 
reported  to  us  that  no  city  in  the  com- 
munity showed  their  colors  so  much  as 
the  city  of  Zeigler  which  is  located  in 
Franklin  County.  At  least  three  hundred 
strong  men  journeyed  in  cars  from 
Zeigler  on  Wednesday  evening  and  al- 
most every  car  was  loaded  with  men, 
guns  and  ammunition. 

More  than  a  month  after  the  massacre 
scarcely  a  visible  effort  has  been  made  to 
discover  or  punish  perpetrators  of  the 
crime.  The  press  of  the  country  united 
in  condemning  the  ghastly  outrage  and 
demanded  action  but  none  has  been  taken. 

37 


State  and  local  officials  have  taken  the 
position  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  fix 
the  responsibility  because  Unionism  con- 
trolled Williamson  County.  In  the  mean- 
time the  bodies  of  the  unidentified  dead 
have  been  buried  in  Potters  Field. 

Shall  the  assassins  of  innocent  American 
citizens  go  unpunished? 

It  cannot  be  possible  that  Illinois  will 
not  take  further  official  cognizance  of  these 
infamous  acts,  as  the  first  and  last  tribunal 
of  the  country,  our  American  citizenship, 
will  demand  that  lawlessness,  murder  and 
massacre  are  not  and  never  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  undermine  the  security  of  not 
only  the  nation's  industries,  but  the  very 
lives  and  homes  of  our  people. 


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